It is truly European citrus season now, so I took a little trip into one of our well-known supermarkets this week to see what was on their easy peeler mandarins. Here is what I found on a premium looking brand pack of easy peelers:
5 fungicidal treatments, and 3 waxes. Happy Halloween indeed. Here are the stars of this chemical show:
Imazalil, Pymethanil, Thiabendazole, ortho-phenlyphenol and Fludioxonil, I won’t get into the detail, suffice it to say, consuming these is best avoided.
Then 3 waxes, E904 — Shellac. Resin secreted by the lac insect, so not vegan. E903 — Carnauba wax. Plant wax from the leaves of the Brazilian palm. E914 — Oxidised polyethylene wax. Synthetic, petroleum-derived polymer.
After uncovering all this fun information, I did a little digging because I really wanted to know why things seem to have unravelled to the point where we need 8 different chemicals on an easy peeler mandarin.
Here is the journey of our little clementine hero.
When our humble little orange/mandarin/lemon/lime/grapefruit is harvested it has a natural wax to protect it. Once harvested this orange is brought into a pack house where the wax is removed with a mechanical brush and a warm detergent wash. The orange is then either dipped/or sprayed in/with a mixture of fungicides up to 50 °C, the temperature is necessary to push the chemicals into the skin of the citrus (there has even been residues found in the pulp in some studies)
Once the chemical concoction has set and dried, the little orange is then subjected to a wax infused fungicidal mix, generally applied by spray to coat the lovely little orange in a final chemical outer shell, that gives your orange that lovely shiny look.
Ok so is this necessary? Some would argue it is to reduce food waste, well we source organic oranges throughout the year, which have no treatment. Sometimes you do need to pick through and remove the odd green mouldy one, but here is the thing, in a couple of those packs I lifted from the shelf there was the exact same mould.
Now there is even more: These chemicals must be added to the label by law, in fact the waxes are classed as a food additive. The Spanish government took the EU to court to try to remove the necessity for this labelling (being a large citrus producer, they didn’t like the idea that consumers might have this information) they failed.
When we move into the online world the picture is even more interesting, if the citrus fruit contains these chemicals they should be listed on the retailers website, in this case they are not. I searched several products on large supermarket chain websites, and only in a handful actually listed the chemicals.
So, make what you want of that, our clementines may not light up a room when you take them out of their paper bag, but I’ll take that over their chemical cousins.
We are a small business operating in a ferocious retail landscape and it is a very fine line to keep things moving forward, as long as we are here, you can be sure you will get the best most trusted food and information anywhere, please support us by placing an order.
Thank you.
Kenneth